Under the copyright laws of the United States and multiple other countries, a single work may have multiple copyright holders and various entities may hold other rights with regard to the content of the work. For example, various entities have rights in a song—the author, the publisher, and the music label are just some of the many different entities that may have different rights and each may be entitled to receive royalty payments under the various royalty schemes in force in a particular country.
While Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) such as The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) exist to collect public performance royalties on behalf of the various copyright holders when their works are broadcast on the radio or on television, this type of collection mechanism is not widely available in the online environment.
Current online collection mechanisms include www.revver.com and www.metacafe.com. These websites allow users to collect payment for their uploaded digital content items such as videos. However, current online collection mechanisms simply allow every digital content item that is uploaded to the website the ability to generate revenue. Current online collection mechanisms lack any analysis of the originality of the content within the digital content items. Additionally, online current collection mechanisms simply allow all users of the website the ability to upload digital content items which have revenue generating capabilities.